Honk: Hello Kitty license plate can be OK

Q. Yesterday, I was driving behind a really nice car that looked like it came from the movie "Fast & Furious." I did a double-take.It had a regular California license plate, and in the rear, back window a Japanese plate. Is that legal?

– Mario Luna, Anaheim

A. As legal as a glass of lemonade on a sunny day.

So long as the California-issued plates are properly mounted on the front and back of a car and aren't being blocked, you are good, said Gabe Montoya, an officer and spokesman for the California Highway Patrol based in Irvine.

"It means nothing to us," he said of the Japanese, Arizona, Hawaiian, Hello Kitty or whatever other plates are attached to the vehicle for kicks.

Montoya did say the CHP comes across BMWs sometimes with the California plate attached in good fashion to the car's rear, but in the front, there is a German license plate – and that is not OK.

Q. When is the new completion date for the bridge extension of Gene Autry Way across to Haster Street? I found an old Register article that said July 2012. We're a bit past that.

– John Prothero, Garden Grove

A. John, after the years and years this has taken to get completed, because of funding and land-acquisition delays, you just might want to break out in a little "Gangnam Style" dance in celebration.

Honk couldn't find an expected completion date of July, but he did ferret out a Register article written two years ago when ground was broken to get the roadway over the I-5 to the maw of Angel Stadium and near the Disneyland Resort. It called for a "summer 2012" completion.

At one point, 97 homes and four businesses were razed to allow for the project.

Ruth Ruiz, a spokeswoman for Anaheim, said to expect it to open in late November.

Among the extension's benefits: relieving congestion on Katella Avenue and Ball Road, Ruiz said: "It's going to be fantastic."

Not summer, or July – but for $66 million for the project that includes the bridge, what did you expect, John?

Turns out that electric transmission lines had to unexpectedly be moved.

Honkin' Fact: The CHP has agreements with neighboring states, giving its officers police powers for so many miles inside the other states so pursuits don't have to end at the border.